Santa Fe Baldy

After last year’s 1 night solo backpacking in Santa Fe Forest, I challenged myself to a 2 night backpacking hike this summer.

I was a bit over myself honnestly, but I could make changes in my planning and equipment to do better next time.

On the first day, I parked at the ski bassin around 5pm, so I had to reach a suitable camping site and set up camp in about 3.5 hours. Fifteen minutes into the climb, it started hailing. Rain showers came soon after. That was okay, because I had a rain suit, and the two next days would be dry. I successfully set up my shelter and slept dry and warm.

On day 2, I set out to climb Santa Fe Baldy, which is the highest peak in this region. Listen, it takes 5 hours, climbing up and down three other mountains, just to get to the base of Santa Fe Baldy. I did that with a backpack, including a sleeping bag and all. It was super fun, but really hard. At that point, I had to take breaks every hour, then every 40 minutes.

The climb up Santa Fe Baldy is another 2 whole hours of every step hurting, taking breaks every 20-30 minutes, then 2 hours to get back down. My shoulders hurt the whole time. And then after coming down the mountain, there is another 4 hour hike to the area I was wanting to reach for the night. My shoulders were still hurting the whole time, and I was quite ambivalent about the whole experience. I now know that I can hike 10 hours in one day with a heavy backpack on my aching shoulders. I don’t know how to feel about this information. A little bit of pride for sure, but then…. why would I do that?

It turns out it’s a very popular trail, and there were lots of fit people of a wide range of ages doing it. But they all had super light day packs. I saw very few people with large multi-day backpacks, and certainly none of them carrying that stuff up that mountain.

Overall, it was one of the hardest thing I’ve had to physically do in my whole life. I wouldn’t plan to do that again. I will either go backpacking and hike a nice short easy trail, or do a high peak in a day hike with a light pack, but not both.

I set up camp for the second night. It was a beautiful spot. But there had been rain and my chosen area was damp. Mosquitoes were coming out after the sunset, and I was not prepared for them at all. No deet, no net, don’t usually need them. I tried zipping up my sleeping bag and covering my face with a shirt, but that night was much warmer and that made me feel like I was cooking. I gave up and took myself out of the woods, walking in the twilight with a flashlight. That was a good decision. I am not very experienced and so I am prepared to bail myself out if I’m not doing ok. It was a 1 hour walk downhill. I slept in the car, and then drove back home in the morning. My shoulders were not even that sore.

The view of the mountain range going far beyond the horizon in the North East was exactly as fascinating as I thought it would be. I just wanted to see that. Can you imagine being an early civilization explorer and just deciding to go discover whole areas like that?